


16. A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

by Knitwritezombie (Missa_G)



Series: KWZ does Whumptober 2020 [13]
Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Captivity, Gen, Mental Torture, Torture, Ventress likes mind games
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-16
Updated: 2020-10-16
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:02:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 770
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27051610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missa_G/pseuds/Knitwritezombie
Summary: Prompt: Forced to Beg | Hallucinations | Shoot the HostageVentress captures Cody
Series: KWZ does Whumptober 2020 [13]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1948744
Kudos: 47
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	16. A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

The door flew open and Rex strode into his cell, blaster raised as he cleared the room.

Cody would have felt a spark of hope, but this was roughly the 30th time someone had come to rescue him from Ventress’ clutches. Each of the previous times, just as he’d stepped foot into the corridor outside his damp, rank cell, the darksider witch’s high pitched cackle surrounded him and he found himself back to where he’d started, chained to the wall in tattered scraps of his blacks.

He’d seen Wooley and Kenobi, Boil and Waxer (who Ventress had ‘murdered’ before she’d reset whatever hellscape Cody was trapped in), Skywalker and Ahsoka, Rex and the remains of Domino Squad, even Wolffe and Koon. The hallucinations or simulations or whatever they were, were just plausible enough to be believable. 

Until Ventress decided she’d had enough and dumped him back into reality.

Cody had no real way of tracking time, so he had no idea how long he’d been held. He and the General had been searching for some artifact that intelligence reported Dooku was also looking for. 

If Cody made it out of this, he was going to conduct a very thorough review of their intelligence operations. It had been a trap.

Ventress had gotten the jump on them, and instead of doing the logical thing and shooting Cody by means of distraction so they could both get away, Kenobi had tried to negotiate them out of the situation, which ended with Kenobi unconscious and Cody the guest of Ventress’ hospitality. 

Cody knew he was only still alive to torment Kenobi. Which meant that at least, somewhere, his General was alive. Otherwise, Ventress would have just killed Cody already; she hadn’t questioned him, so she clearly wasn’t after information. He also knew that, despite what the regs and the Council probably told him, Kenobi would do anything in his power to recover any of his men, not just Cody.

Which is why it had taken Cody so long to stop believing the rescue attempts.

But Ventress hadn’t given up, either.

There were irregular deliveries of water and ration bars, at least, so he wouldn’t starve. But he was wasting away all the same, unable to move further than a few paces at a time, and to even do that, he had to grit against the pain of sharp rocks digging into the soles of his feet.

So, when Rex burst into his cell for at least the 15th time, Cody didn’t react, other than to look up, then go back to counting the stones on the floor.

“Fives, Echo, hold the corridor. Generals, I’ve found him,” Rex reported.

Just then a boom sounded and rattled the structure, sending dust and small stones cascading down. Cody winced as several hit the tender spot on the back of his neck.

Wait.

That was new.

“Rex?” he croaked hoarsely.

“Yeah, ori’vod?” his younger brother crossed the cell in a few long strides and set to work removing the shackles around his ankles, then the binders around his wrists.

“You’re really here?” Cody couldn’t help the plaintive note in his voice.

“Yeah, Codes, I’m really here.” The binders around his wrists fell to the ground, and Cody seized Rex by the forearms.

“Prove it. Tell me something no one else knows.” Ventress was powerful, sure, but even Kenobi couldn’t read minds, especially through shielding as tough as Cody had been taught to keep in place.

He expected that demand to reset the scene, but the structure shuddered again as a boom echoed once again.

“Cody, what? We don’t have time for this, come on,” Rex cajoled, tugging at Cody’s grip around his vambraces. 

Cody dug his fingers against the plastoid until they ached and the vambraces creaked under the pressure. “Please,” he begged in a low whisper.

“Okay, alright, udesii, Cody,” Rex placated. “Wait one, Wooley,” he said into his comm. “Can I take my bucket off, vod?”

Cody nodded and released his grip on Rex’s arms. Rex took his helmet off and placed it next to where he knelt, looking Cody in the eyes. 

“You tell everyone you got your scar in a training accident, because no one would have any respect for you if they knew you tripped over your little brother on your way to the ‘fresher in the middle of the night and cut your face open on one of the corners of his armor,” Rex said. 

“Oh thank fuck,” Cody muttered, relief washing through him. “I’ll tell you later,” he cut in before Rex could ask. “Just get me out of here.”

**Author's Note:**

> Mando'a
> 
> ori'vod = big brother  
> udesii - relax, calm down


End file.
